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Imagine you are on your high school football team and just took the hardest hit of your life. You go to the doctor and he suspects that you will have a major concussion and potential brain damage. That sounds bad, kind of worst case scenario but in reality, this is real life situations for many high schoolers every year because their brains are not even fully developed! This makes you wonder should high contact sports be banned for people under the age of 21? Because of the higher injurie rate for high school football players then there are for older college players? The potential long term effects from high school injuries? Or even the fact that concussions from high contact sports can alter your brain functions.
Now back when a lot of these
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high contact sports started they didn’t take into mind the risks. Take football, in the early stages they had minimum protection so much as a thin leather helmet and because of this there have been players that have even died from fatal injuries even just from high school. Now fast forward to today there are still many injuries not quite as deadly but still fatal from impact after impact even with the high Tec concussion resistant gear. First of all, there is a higher injurie rate for high school football players that there are for older college players. As it says in a report from The New York Times in 2017 by Gina Kolata and she says “Those figures turned out to be hard to come by, researchers at Yale discovered, but, using the best data available, they calculated that if contact sports could be made noncontact — like flag football, for example — there would be 49,600 fewer injuries among male college athletes per year and 601,900 fewer among male high school athletes.” (Gina) so without cutting the sports just by taking away the contact factor of them the injurie rate will go down by 601,900 per year maybe even more. Another reason is a lot of these injuries from contact sports can be damaging in the long run.
As it states in a document posted by The Inquirer written in the words of Gary A. Emmett a professor of Pediatrics and a personal victim of these long term damages “I broke my hand in ninth grade and did not tell anyone for the whole season, so I could continue to play. I got my “my bell rung” (probably mild concussions) at least five times. As long as I could tell two fingers from three fingers, I was put right back into the game.” (Gary). The danger of these sports are real and most of the injures come from high school like his broken hand. even when the sports are not even as intense and fast pace like in college or above. This shows how intense just high school football can be when kids haven’t even experienced life yet. he also states ”I have mild chronic pain and a missing knuckle on my right hand probably from ignoring that broken hand in high school. I developed traumatic arthritis of my cervical spine and needed neck surgery in my late 30s probably because of repetitive trauma from those two sports. My leg joints are very stiff mainly because I’m 67, but probably also from thousands of collisions in my youth.”(Gary) Now many kids would do anything just to play just like he did and that can be costing in the long run just because some kids don’t know the potential cost of a small concussion or broken
finger. Finally, concussions from high contact sports can alter your brain functions. as it is stated on Today by A. Pawlowski where he found a study by Sweden stating “Researchers identified 1.1 million children and they followed them for 41 years. They found out that if a child suffers just one concussion that brings him to the hospital, that child is more likely to die before the age of 42, especially through violent means; he has a two to four times increased risk of committing suicide as an adult; and is about two to four times more likely to suffer a major psychiatric illness as an adult, including major depression. He is more likely to have diminished intelligence and is more likely to be less gainfully employed as an adult. He is more likely to become a drug addict or alcoholic; and is more likely to engage in violent or criminal behavior.”(Pawlowski). So these injuries to the head don’t just cause slight brain damage over time but can affect the way they think and act and not always for the good it can make people more vulnerable to making bad decisions. Now some might say playing high school sports can get kids into college as it says in the same personal account of Gary A. Emmett “varsity sports are a common way of getting kids in bad neighborhoods off the streets and into college.”(Gary). This is very true but, in the article, written by Gina Kolata it says, “About a million high school boys playing organized football in the United States.”(Gina) And a very small percentage of those kids actually make it to college from sports. In conclusion with the fact that high schoolers are more vulnerable to injurie then college players because their brains are not fully developed and how the damaging long-term effects from high school injuries can haunt some people for the rest of their lives. Not forgetting how the effects from concussions alone can change the way people’s brains work and not for the better. Ask yourself one more time should high contact sports be banned for kids under the age of 21?
In the article “Should Kids Play Football” from the Scholastic Scope on February 2015, writer Jennifer Shotz discusses both issues of the benefits and dangers of playing American football. For example, Jennifer Shots mentioned that tens of thousands of young football players get concussions every year. She states that most players return to the game after they are healed but some never return because their concussion was too severe to their health. On the other hand, the writer also discusses how football isn't the only sport that encounters concussions. The rules of football are always changing and each new rule provides a safer way to play the game. For example, the writer notes that Pop Warner has reduced the amount of practice time dedicated
Injuries are a huge part in professional sports. When playing a professional sport athletes do not always take into consideration that their bodies are vulnerable to injuries. One of the leading injuries that can end athlete’s career is concussion. According Kia Boriboon author of the article “Concussion Management In Football: Don 't Shake It Off” concussion occurs when the brain repeatedly collides with the skull. Concussions are serious and cannot be taken lightly they are detrimental to a person’s athletic career as well as life. Players who have suffered from a concussion or like symptoms of a concussion are at risk and should not continue playing their sport until cleared by a medical doctor, who is an expert in concussions. If concussions are not treated with the appropriate medical care, it can cause physical and mental health problems for athletes well after their professional career have ended. In
[National Federation of State High School Associations] NFHS (high school statistics 14-17/18) participation data shows a little over 1.1 million participants; for a total of roughly 6.6 million participants in youth football from Peewee up through high school Varsity. You could probably adjust this 5 percent in both directions as a deviation because again, while each area may have full padded football, not all data is centralized [2].” Due to its nature, the sport of football has always been a physical sport and participating athletes have always been prone to various injuries; however, the issue of injuries inflicted by the game did not become a social issue until recently. Among the several injuries this sport exposes; the leading affliction and hottest social topic is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). In 2002 Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist and chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, California, as well as a professor in the UC Davis Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, first discovered CTE and defined the same as, “… a progressive degenerative disease that afflicts the brain of people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBI)” [3]. Omalu discovered this new found disease in
At the snap of the ball a whole players world could come crashing down. The game of football holds a whooping 47% of all concussions reported in the world, while ice hockey and soccer trail behind. Football is America’s sport and its athletes become the world’s pride and joy, but what happens when an athlete is injured and is struggling to mentally get better. This topic hits close to home for me because it was the one sport my family praised and adored. My older brother who is now twenty five, played highschool football for the Laconia Sachems. Just the name Sachems is enough to make me get the chills. In 2007 the Laconia Sachems the only undefeated team to go on to win the New Hampshire state championship saw success, but my brother went
Throughout the years, many sports have evolved from that of their beginning. Be it through rule changes, advances in the way people watch the game, advances in how they play the game, but this biggest one of all is the change in equipment. This is most commonly seen and heard about in American football. Due to all of the advances in the medical field and seeing the sports injuries that occur. Football had to adapt and change to the new standards of safety for the players with new and improved equipment to lessen the chance of long term damage.
Ice hockey is a fast-paced and full contact sport whether you are in a body checking league or not. However with a full contact sports, concussions are unfortunately inevitable. There are numerous factors that play into the number of concussions in ice hockey. Body checking and numerous head impact injuries that occur in hockey are a huge reason for concussions. Although administrators are taking steps towards concussion prevention and education, this education is proving to be ineffective. This paper will take a look at the various injury mechanisms that contribute to concussions and other head-impact injuries in ice hockey, as well as discussing concussion education.
In contrast to the positives, high school athletics can be seen in a negative light. “Concussions [from athletics] cause structural brain damage” (Solotaroff 7). Even though nobody is said to get a concussion in Friday Night Lights, they are very frequent in football and in other sports today. They occur all the time in football especially. In addition to that piece of nega...
How can a concussion be prevented? What is the minimum time an athlete needs to be out of the game after a concussion? What are the chances of an athlete suffering post-traumatic stress disorders after a blow to the head? In all sports athletes are prone to injuries, they can happen at any time and at any given moment. Nevertheless, people that have suffered from a head injury or concussion will also have problems dealing with their learning processes in the long run.
Not only do we know the effects of playing football at a young age, we also have real life stories that have occured to real people. For example, In 2006 a 13 year old named Zachary Lystatdt’s head hit the ground in a routine tackle. He was in pain, so the coach took him out of the game for two plays. He returned to the game and on the last play he collapsed. Zachary was rushed to the hospital and was required to have emergency neurosurgery. After this life changing surgery, 9 months later he was finally able to communicate. Now, he is still learning how to walk (Hamblin, James. “Football Alters the Brains of Kids as Young as 8.”)This story sets an example of why children should not be able to play contact sports until adulthood. Unfortunately, this is not the only sad story about a child who has had life changing effects from playing
Since football’s inception, it has been considered a manly sport. Young boys have been encouraged by their parents to participate in the game. For many boys, it is considered a rite of passage. However, football is a dangerous sport. A study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy found, “an estimated 5.25 million football-related injuries among children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years of age were treated in U.S. emergency departments between 1990 and 2007. The annual number of football-related injuries increased 27 percent during the 18-year study period, jumping from 274,094 in 1990 to 346,772 in 2007” (Nation 201). These reported injuries include sprains and strains, broken bones, cracked ribs, torn ligaments, and concussions. A concussion usually happens when a player takes a hard hit to the head or is knocked unconscious on the playing field, and if not diagnosed and treated quickly, a concussion can result in death.
Scientist have conducted extensive studies over time to prove and disprove both sides of the coin. The Mayo Clinic found that the risk of high school football players developing degenerative neurological diseases later in life is no greater than if they had been in the band, glee or choir. Riley also states that the data suggests that a normal adolescent life puts them at risk for brain injury all the time. Boot has provided that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health surveyed 3,439 men who played in the NFL for at least five seasons between 1958 and 1988, and found that they actually live longer than the general population. This information shows that the studies inconclusive and that the concerns may be exaggerated; however, you can’t ignore the increasing number of new
From long practice hours, hot summer workouts, and many Friday nights, my personal observation of this dangerous sport is exceptionally prevalent. My initial experience of the damage that football brings came my eighth grade year when I witnessed a senior football player on my team try and eat a phone on the ride home after receiving a concussion in the third quarter of the game. Which is a prime example to defend the fact that football related injuries to the head result in people not “being all there.” Not only have I seen someone try and eat a phone, but I have also witnessed head injuries resulting in my own friend randomly yelling at me after a game for no reason, and also a friend trying to jump down a full flight of stairs thinking he was starring in a movie. The fast paced, high intensity contact that comes with playing football is nothing to think flippantly of when it plays a role on brain trauma, and the results of brain trauma.
If there are many injury reports then the sport has to be pretty dangerous. “Based on almost 1,900 injury reports submitted to the RIO, the researchers estimate there was 517,726 football-related injuries during the 2005-2006 season at the high school level across the United States.” (High School, College Football Comes With Risk) High school sports are more dangerous because the athletes are still growing. “High school athletes are less physically mature and have less muscle mass than the collegiate athletes, for instance. They also have incomplete growth plates, meaning their bones are still developing.” (High School, College Football Comes With
It’s a Friday night. You've come to watch your child play in tonight’s big football rivalry game. Seconds remain on the clock when suddenly number fifty-four, your son, has been hit and is laying there lifeless. You don’t know sitting from the stands that your child is currently unconscious and has suffered a concussion. After a hospital trip, multiple doctor visits, seeing your son struggling with daily tasks, and the realization of how serious the situation really was, you think to yourself, “Was there more that could have been done to prevent what happened, and what more needs to be done afterwards?”
In the first article I read stated that “four out of every 1,000 high school football exposures resulted in an injury, while eight out of every 1,000 collegiate football exposures resulted in an injury.” That just shows that football is one of the most dangerous sports, because while playing football most players get hit head to head or others get thrown or tackled hard. It might not seem as serious as it sounds but it is actually serious, players should be more cautions as they play. Some of the injuries are caused by running plays not only in high school but in collegate school. In high school they see that for most of the season players are getting injured or concussions. Running backs and linebackers are the ones that tend to get injures.